Brown/beige as non neutrals? - YouLookFab Forum

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Brown/beige as non neutrals?

Anonymous

A few people included brown, beige, camel as colors that aren't neutrals in their wardrobes and I'm curious! To me, even if they're not a big part of the wardrobe, they are hair/skin colors- so inherently "neutral to us." OTOH, blue is not a body or natural hair color, so always a non neutral in my mind.
Thoughts?

General

37 replies

Latest reply was from Star

Helena

Veteran

Suntiger, this is a great question and I know I've said this elsewhere, so sorry for the repetition! But, to me (and again, this is totally personal), a wardrobe neutral is basically a colour that you would be okay pairing with basically any colour). This is why I struggle with the idea of 'navy as a neutral', because I don't love navy with most other colours ... it feels too 'colourful' to me (whereas I know lots of other people will use it will any colour). It could be that the commenters feel that way about it? Or it could be that they have another definition of neutral?

It's a good point about how we often use blue as a neutral (navy and denim being prime examples), even though very few of us have any blue at all in our bodies. Perhaps it's because blue is so easy on the eye, for some biological reason that I can't recall but something to do with how we take in light, I believe ...

So endlessly fascinating to me!

Anonymous

Yes re: blues! I only wear them with neutrals, or maybe orange. Well teal with olive, but olive would be the neutral then.

Helena

Veteran

These discussions are so helpful, because whenever I clarify my definition of a thing, then I am so much more able to assess the information I come across ... colour is honestly one of the most interesting things in the world to me!

JAileen

Veteran

Helena, I treat navy as a neutral. I have a few things that are black, and honestly, nothing goes with it!

Helena

Veteran

Jaileen, that is awesome I will admit that today I have a muted mauve t-shirt on with black shorts, and I feel like I don't match. This rarely happens! I wouldn't do navy here though ... Dark gray or white would work. Goodness knows why ha!!

Irina

Veteran

Fashion neutral colors are different from neutral colors in art. Plus, we all have our own interpretation. Admittedly, color theory is not my forte, no matter how much time DH spent explaining
I consider “neutrals”to be 4 colors:
navy
black
brown
white
Also, I include shades of these colors when mixed with white: beige, greys, off white, cream. Navy with white gives shades of denim or colors close to denim. Camel needs touch of yellow to brown & white.

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

I was confused by that too. To me, beige is the most neutral color of all, because it goes with anything. I don’t wear beige, because it’s so “nothing”—to me, that “nothing” is the epitome of a neutral

SarahD8

Veteran

How interesting! Most shades of brown and beige, whether warm or cool, make me look like absolute death. So they are not colors I wear as neutrals.

However, you've got me thinking about my penchant for cognac footwear -- which I have usually thought of as a neutral, BUT its warmth/orange-y tone has a complementary-color effect when paired with blue, which I do wear a lot. I also consider denim and navy neutrals in my wardrobe -- but denim + cognac is really a strong complementary color contrast!

I have blue eyes that are quite a prominent feature and so blue is a "body color" for me. I wonder if people with blue eyes find it easier to wear navy or other shades of blue as a neutral?

ETA: Fashintern I can think of one thing beige manifestly does not go with: my skin! haha

nemosmom

Veteran

Hmmm… I would like to count MY neutrals as any color I can mirror/bookend from my own natural coloring. So, cognac, camel, teal, olive, rust…

But, black and grey goes (kinda) with all of them, and I consider it neutral… but I don’t have any black or grey in my eyes or hair (unless you look reaaallllly closely hehe) so it throws that theory out the window… also, interesting that some blues (like teal) would be neutral then, by my own rules, but not all blues (like denim).

Clearly I have NO idea what I am doing LOL

DonnaF

Veteran

I had my colors “done” in the ‘80s when it was a big thing. In that particular system, neutrals were colors that didn’t hold a lot of energy with my particular combo of skin color, eyes, and hair. I could wear them, but a single solid without any texture would look “blah”. A number of jewel tones are like that on me.

Blues and olives can be particularly versatile and worn like a neutral for folks if they are in their eye color, even if little flecks. Maybe it sends a message on a subliminal level?

rachylou

Veteran

As fashion neutrals go, I think almost black navy is a neutral and all other blues as colour. With brown, I feel a dark brown is colour and lighter browns are neutral. Generally speaking. Because you can get into dye undertones - most obvious when you try to match blacks and realise they don’t! Black may go with any colour except… another black! Lol

bj1111

Veteran

what @rachy said--esp chocolate brown--this is a color. camel may be a neutral or a color. for me, if i want to match/repeat it elsewhere in the outfit, it's a color--that includes browns.

cat2

Veteran

Hmm, I consider dark brown a neutral, it’s something you can use as a base for many combinations, just like black, navy, grey, etc.

slim cat

Veteran

My skin/hair/eyes have ashy undertones or colors - soft grey is my “at home “, calming color without much energy. I don’t wear it outside the home - at makes me pale as a ghost- lol. Neutral color but without much use .
Blue especially pale blue, aqua makes my skin brighter and energizes me - some specks in my eyes are soft green ( looks a bit blue to some ).
That’s my examples for the some colors that I do have in my look.
Brown, beige are the colors that I prefer not to have at all ( used to have some chocolate brown bottoms in the past - all gone now ).

chewyspaghetti

Veteran

I haven't read all the replies, but I wanted to chime in. Whether or not something is a neutral (to me) has to do with the way that I use it in outfits, rather than the color itself. I don't pair browns with other colors that I wear, only with neutrals...so, to me- it's a color.

April

Veteran

As always, just listen to Irina. Seriously.

Also - like chewy, I too think of brown as a color. And I only wear the coolest chocolate browns, often with black.

Sal

Veteran

I tend to include browns as neutrals along with blues, greys, whites and blacks - and treat olive and blush like a neutral too.

I don't wear all these colours with colours though - for example I don't like black and red much on me (too high contrast and bright) nor am I keen on navy with blush (skews too cool on me).

I don't know that any neutral goes with all other colours, probably the closest for me would be denim, camel, ecru, olive and light grey - and these are the colours that are closer to my eyes (denim/olive/light grey), hair (camel) and ecru (skin). I don't have black or white or navy or blush in my colouring so they are a bit trickier.

This cami below is brown, but not so easy for me to incorporate as it is quite a bright brown. I think of it as netural though.

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Anonymous

Even though nemosmom claims not to know what she’s doing - I’m doing it right along with her . To me , neutrals are personal and subjective . Sure , every fashion editorial and expert proclaims neutrals to be black , navy , camel , grey etc - but I like to think we create our own list of neutrals based on what looks good on us and what works best . I certainly don’t use those colours as the basis for my wardrobe - but instead have picked a few that work with each other , my skin tone and my aesthetic preferences . I used to subscribe to the idea that I should own a bunch of navy grey and black , but I’ve almost completely weeded out the grey and navy . Black has to stay because it’s a work outfit requirement - but I’d be fine without it .

LaPed

Veteran

I go back and forth on this. I totally get the idea of "body neutrals" and do tend to gravitate towards clothing colours that refer to my personal coloring in some way. So blues are easy (eyes), dark brown is pretty easy (hair), rust/cinnamon is easy (freckles and sun highlights), and olive and ochre are represented in my eye flecks. But I still treat all of those as colours. If I put on a cinnamon top and denim bottoms that is a *colorful* outfit to my eye. It's practically red and blue! Cinnamon top with black jeans -- that's a colour plus an achromatic. Achromatics are the closest to neutrals for me in the sense of goes-with-almost-everything. If I'm only packing one pair of jeans, you can bet it will be black and not blue.

So I do treat my browns like colours. Rust serves as my version of orange, ochre as my version of yellow. The cognac thing is interesting; I've always found most cognacs to be too bright and orange for me, especially next to blue denim. Like Sarah says, it's a complementary colour combination, and feels very bright and high impact. I'm always looking for lighter mid-browns that are softer and more muted than cognac, but not as pale as beige or tan. Walnut or toasted coconut...

When I did try to treat brown as a neutral, I ended up purging it all, because I was expecting it to behave like black and it just wouldn't!

Runcarla

Veteran

I’ve been procrastinating at answering this question because I listed beige as a ‘colour’ in my thread - even though it is a slam dunk match to my hair colour. I guess it’s because I’ve never had a lot of it in my closet (see Finds below) and haven’t fully committed to it. I’m on the horns of a dilemma regarding a winter coat - do I get the camel/beige colour or the black? As my hair gets lighter/whiter will beige/camel be as versatile as black?

If I spring for the camel coat, I will accept beige is now a neutral for me. If I go for the black version, well, then black will continue as my keystone neutral and beige will continue to be an accent, and thus a ‘colour’.

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Joy

Veteran

This is such a good question. Right now I should think of browns as colors in my wardrobe as a have very few pieces, much more rust and even more grey. I had hoped to add more browns this fall but still do not see much offered. I’m afraid grey will have to fill in for brown as a neutral again this year.

Anonymous

I think I get it! Our neutrals are how they function in our wardrobes, more than whether the color itself is achromatic (black, true grey, white), a color commonly used as neutral (navy, olive) or neutral to us (shades of brown- for me).
I didn't really think of eye color as much, because eyes are a small body part, but my eyes are hazel and olive functions as neutral sometimes in my outfits. If I wear it with teal, its a neutral- but with brown, its a color. With black I'd have thought color, buuut black is not a body color. Hmm....
I've been preferring black with body adjacent colors- camel, cognac, and olive or alone. I wear a lot of black though.

Star

Veteran

ST Do you remember this post from Angie? It generated so many comments.

Team Neutral or Team Non-Neutral - YLF (youlookfab.com)

So Angie firmly puts browns and tans in the neutral camp. I recall another post where everyone had different ideas about which colors were neutrals but Angie had some firm rules.

N

Navy my neutral. I don't have black, I have grey but actually I don't think grey suits me too much. I need like a balance of both warm and cool tones as I think I'm really neutral (or as near to neutral as you can get) colouring wise. Too cool looks bad and too warm looks bad but a cool tone of a warm colour or a warm tone of a cool colour looks good. I can pair navy with the colours that suit me.

Anonymous

I put myself firmly on team non neutral then- lol- now I'm the opposite! No wonder I hate* most of my wardrobe now A lot happened since 2019...

*not really hate, per se, but I want to at least pack most of it away for a while*

kkards

Veteran

Nodding along with Helena’s definition of fashion neutrals…which is why for me browns are a neutral if they are accessories, especially shoes or belts, but a color if they are clothing….i know, it makes no sense, but i can never figure out what to wear with brown clothing, and so I’d wear white/cream …actual I’ve solved the problem by not buying brown clothing, and even with in accessories, i limit my brown to a narrow range…

Star

Veteran

ST I am also finding myself migrating from Team Non-Neutral to Team Neutral lately. I did not comment on that thread but would have for sure said Team Non-Neutral then. My brighter colors and patterns are not making me very happy right now, but give me all the light grey. WOW is this me?? I will have to change my YLF profile.

Also I believe that if you wear a Neutral color as an accent in your wardrobe that does not change the color being classified a neutral. That is constant. (As per Angie detailed above.)

Anonymous

I wear dark brown as I do black, with medium to dark colors usually, but it just softens the contrast a bit. My medium browns I wear with light, medium or dark colors- and of course cognac shoes as my nude. My beiges I usually wear with medium colors (I don't wear pastels).

Yep Star- should probably update my profile too! I just need the quieter colors now to balance out...well my life at this stage.

RobinF

Veteran

Hmm, I am definitely of the school that neutrals are determined by how I use them. I will wear "my" neutrals with a color or another neutral but I will not wear two colors together. For example blue - looks good on me, I have blue-gray eyes and works well that way - but I would never wear it with pink or gold or olive, just too colorful But I would wear it with black, gray, white, taupe, camel. Depends on intensity too but that is a whole different thing!

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